Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:15:16.187Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Elderly psychiatric patients: a five-year prospective study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Antonia Whitehead*
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Ann Hunt
Affiliation:
University of Reading
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr A. Whitehead, Long Grove Hospital, Horton Lane, Epsom, Surrey KT19 8PU.

Synopsis

In a prospective study, 200 elderly psychiatric patients were followed for 5 years. A poor outcome–death or continuing major reliance on the hospital based services – was associated with poor intellectual functioning on admission. Continued use of the hospital services was also related to past psychiatric history.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cawley, R. H., Post, F. & Whitehead, A. (1973). Barbiturate tolerance and psychological functioning in elderly depressed patients. Psychological Medicine 3, 3952.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davies, G., Hamilton, S., Hendrickson, D. E., Levy, R. & Post, F. (1978). Psychological test performance and sedation thresholds of elderly dements, depressives and depressives with incipient brain changes. Psychological Medicine 8, 103109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenhouse, S. W. & Geisser, S. (1959). On methods in the analysis of profile data. Psychometrika 24, 95112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, M. (1978). Clinical checklist for diagnosis of dementia. British Medical Journal ii, 266267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglis, J., Colwell, C. & Post, F. (1960). An evaluation of the predictive power of a test known to differentiate between elderly ‘functional’ and ‘organic’ patients. Journal of Mental Science 196, 14861491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, D. W. K. (1962). Outcome and cause of death in mental disorders of old age: a long-term follow-up of functional and organic psychoses. Acta psychiatrica scandinavica 38. 249276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, C. (1969). Clinical heterogeneity in senile dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry 115, 267271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Office of Health Economics (1979). Dementia in Old Age. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1977). Mortality Statistics, 1974. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Post, F. (1951). The outcome of mental breakdown in old age. British Medical Journal i, 436440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Post, F. (1962). The Significance of Affective Symptoms in Old Age. Maudsley Monograph No. 10. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Post, F. (1966). Somatic and psychic factors in the treatment of elderly psychiatric patients. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 10, 1318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Post, F. (1972). The management and nature of depressive illnesses in late life: a follow-through study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 393404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roth, M. (1955). The natural history of mental disorders in old age. Journal of Mental Science 101, 281301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanderson, R. E. & Inglis, J. (1961). Learning and mortality in elderly psychiatric patients. Journal of Gerontology 16, 375376.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Savage, R. D., Britton, P. G., Bolton, N. & Hall, E. H. (1973). Intellectual Functioning in the Elderly. Methuen: London.Google Scholar
Whitehead, A. (1973). Verbal learning and memory in elderly depressives. British Journal of Psychiatry 123, 203208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitehead, A. (1974). Factors in the learning deficit of elderly depressives. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 13, 201208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitehead, A. (1976). The prediction of outcome in elderly psychiatric patients. Psychological Medicine 6, 469479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed